What happens to the water happens to the people...
Next Full Moon Walk Don't Stay Home This Full Moon!
Caucus or Coldwater
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
7 PM
Meet at the front gate to Coldwater
If you're not attending your political caucus Tuesday evening come to Coldwater for fresh air and trees.
People are still locked out of Coldwater for deconstruction of the buildings and trees. The woodland has been leveled into prairie with a plan for oaks in years to come. Sadness and hope. We can’t get in Coldwater but we can get out into the woods.
– Traditional group howl! –
Sunset 5:29 PM (39-minutes later than last month)
Moonrise 5:43 PM (2-minutes later than last month.)
• Always FREE and Open to the Public •
Directions: Coldwater Spring is between Minnehaha Park & Fort Snelling, in Minneapolis, just North of the Hwy 55/62 interchange. From Hwy 55/Hiawatha, turn East (toward the Mississippi) at 54th Street, take an immediate right, & drive South on the frontage road for one-half mile to a parking meter. Coldwater is at the end of the road.
PARKING ALERT: Parking meters cost 75-cents per hour until midnight. Either bring quarters or plan to park in the neighborhood, across Hwy 55.
To the Chief of Resource Management for the Mississippi National River and Recreation area (MNRRA) of the National Park Service,
Mr. John Anfinson, Ph.D.;
I honorably request that you hear my plea for the land at Coldwater Spring, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
With the colors of the four directions of the Medicine Wheel in the back ground the people celebrate in ceremony at Coldwater Spring. This is a church of the Earth People. Who stem from many tribes, Native American's, African American's, European Americans, and Asian Americans. To remove the natural essence of Coldwater Spring in Minneapolis, MN is to remove a place of spiritual renewal for many people. It especially will do harm to the Dakota People; whose Spiritual Life is as enfluenced by the Spirit, Mni Owe Sni, residing in Coldwater Spring, as a Christian's Spiritual life is enfluenced by the Bible. I would not tear up the Bible. Having seen the new plans for the Resevoir at Coldwater Spring, I ask you to reconsider your plans to a more natural park plan. Perhaps these beautiful plans could be placed in a park that does not play as significant role in the religion of a Native Culture as Coldwater Spring does. It is not too late to change the plan to one that will enhance what remains of our beloved land. To remove the mound behind Coldwater is to disturb Mni Owe Sni.
I ask you for a change of heart and for you to call me with any questions you may have of why i feel this way about this land. I am open for discussion.
Karen C. Nelson, Citizen of Apple Valley, MN 55124 USA
near Minneapolis, i visit Coldwater often.
WARNING!
Paint Remover Used in Coldwater Spring House
—On Wednesday, August 31, 2011, the National Park Service used Goof Off to remove graffiti inside the historic Spring House. Goof Off contains Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) which were washed onto the floor of the Spring House, into the porous cement of the interior walls, and into the reservoir water. The treatment failed to remove graffiti. People are cautioned about collecting water from the pipe funneling water into the reservoir.
—The National Park Service used the free labor of people steered into Sentence to Serve rather than jail for minor crimes. Workers wore dust masks that do not protect against VOCs. State of the art laser removal vaporizes graffiti (air pollution) and is recommended for historic sites. Sand blasting results in paint and cement dust blasted into the air and dropping into the water. Coldwater is considered sacred by many people who drink and/or use the spring water in ceremony.
—John Anfinson, of the National Park Service, who is heading the Coldwater reconstruction plan wrote: "If anyone has a question about what we are doing, have them call me, and I'll explain everything we are doing personally." His phone is: 651-290-3030 extension 285.
The Willow Weeps No More
By Bill Sorem
August 2011
The giant willow by the source of historic Coldwater Spring has been cut down. The National Park Service removed the tree claiming it was a hazard and could damage Coldwater reservoir. The tree was also showing its age with decaying wood, cracks and weak branches.
The spring has been there an estimated 10,000 years and was long a sacred site for the indigenous peoples, probably preceding the current Anishinabe and Dakota people. It was once Camp Coldwater, an adjunct to Fort Snelling. Troops and settlers were quartered there and water was hauled down to the fort, with a pumping system deployed in later years. It was a source of water for the fort from 1820 to 1920.
From the 1950s to 1991 the Coldwater property was a Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines research center. The site was transferred to the Park Service in 2010. When MnDOT rebuilt the Highway 55/62 interchange they did so without the required environmental assessment, claiming that they would prevent any harm to the spring. Their construction caused a loss of more than 27,500 gallons a day. The spring is currently flowing about 90,000 gallons a day.
Susu Jeffrey, founder of Friends of Coldwater, led a Full Moon Walk on August 13, 2011, to visit the old willow before it was cut down. She has lobbied, worked and written for the preservation of this historic area. Visitors sprinkled a circle of corn meal around the tree, celebrating its life and vitality. Some branches were clipped to be sprouted for future descendants of the tree.
Plans for development remain uncertain as the nation wrestles with budget issues and a group in Congress wants to defund the National Park Service. Thus the sacred spring and its environs are left in disarray.
Regarding the Willow... An Open Letter to the National Park Service
From: Sheldon P. Wolfchild, Dakota leader from the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation in Morton, Minnesota
To: John Anfinson, Ph.D., Chief of Resource Management for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA) of the National Park Service
August 10, 2011
Subject: Removing "Sacred Willow Tree at Sacred Site"
Mr. John Anfinson:
The Dakota people who respect and honor our Sacred Sites and the natural vegetation surrounding these sites (which include specific sacred trees such as our willow trees!) and in particular the Sacred willow tree at our Dakota Sacred site Coldwater Spring), are requesting you grant the wish of our elders and spiritual leaders to put a stop on cutting down our Sacred willow tree at Coldwater spring.
As you should know by now the Department of Agriculture and the National Park Service met last March 11th in Phoenix, Arizona, with many Spiritual leaders and Elders to include new rules and guidelines for the protection and use of Sacred sites and the natural plant and tree medicines to be used by the indigenous of this country.
We ask that you call and stop this willow tree removal immediately.
This message will be sent to all our spiritual people across the country.
Sheldon Wolfchild
Did you know... Weekly at Coldwater
Join FRIENDS Every Friday at 2 PM Rain... Snow... or Sun!
Gather informally at the Coldwater Spring
– every Friday afternoon from 2 - 3 pm.
Whether you come for the beauty, for the rich history, or for spiritual rest and renewal, enjoy an hour at the Spring.
Learn more about the Birthplace of Minnesota, and enjoy the beauty and peace of 10,000 year-old Coldwater Spring. Need directions to Coldwater? MAP - click here
Friends of Coldwater Comment on the FEIS for the Coldwater/Bureau of Mines Property.
Friends of Coldwater recommendations for Coldwater Park
NPS / MNRRA Ownership
We support National Park Service/Mississippi National River and Recreation Area management and ownership of Coldwater for all peoples. Traditionally the Coldwater area was a "neutral, sacred" place where all nations gathered together and gathered water for ceremonial use.
Expand Coldwater Park
Expand Coldwater Park (27 acres) to include the adjacent Veterans Administration blufftop parcel (23 acres) and the Minnesota Historical Society bottomland (21 acres) to form one contiguous park linked to the National Park Service Island (108-01) in the Mississippi directly below Coldwater (see attached map).
Green Museum
Coldwater is an ancient geographical feature, predating human habitation here, and is the last natural spring of size (90,000 gallons per day) in Hennepin County. We urge designation of the Coldwater property as America’s first Green Museum, a place where the land itself is the museum, the teacher. Special designation would add protection since the surrounding area is highly developed and slated for more development.
Watershed Protection
After removal of Bureau of Mines buildings and structures, replanting and stabilization of the land, the enduring crucial aspect of “ownership” of this last natural spring in Hennepin County will be to preserve and protect the source water and the underground pathways of that water to the spring outflow.
Unlike other watershed districts in Minnesota, Coldwater's source waters are separated administratively from its outflow and discharge into the Mississippi. Responsibility from source to mouth should be assigned to the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, the agency that sued MnDOT to force a redesign of the Highway 55/62 interchange that threatened 30-percent of the flow to the spring as measured by dye tests.
Retain the Spring House and reservoir (pond) as-is to "partially reflect more than one period in history." Also since the greatest outflow of spring water is at the northwest corner of the Spring House, removing the Spring House with its shade could damage the outflow.
During the Bureau of Mines period when the property was fenced and closed to the public, Coldwater was used as an emergency drinking water supply for south Minneapolis. “In 1976 after months of drought the city water developed an algae that was putrid and undrinkable by my husband who was very sick at the time. I made trips every other day to Coldwater Spring and stood in line to get the best tasting fresh water. We were so thankful for this vital resource. If it is still not polluted it should be a National Treasure!” (Carolyn K. Lyschik, 13805 Glasier Lane, Little Falls MN 56345, written statement dated 10/21/06, [month and year certain, date hard to read] original included with DEIS comments).
With a worldwide clean drinking water crisis and climate change it would be wise to preserve our county’s last natural spring.
Coldwater Spring has been flowing for 10,000 years, experts say, even under the last glacier. The 27 acre Coldwater campus is located atop the Mississippi River gorge, between Minnehaha Regional Park and Fort Snelling State Park, just above the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. Coldwater furnished water to Fort Snelling for a century and still flows at about 100,000 gallons a day.
Coldwater is the Birthplace of Minnesota, where the soldiers who built Fort Snelling lived (1820-3) and where a civilian community developed to service the fort. Those settlers founded Pig's Eye (later St. Paul), St. Anthony, Minneapolis and Bloomington, setting the stage for Minnesota statehood in 1858.
Before European immigration into what is now Minnesota, the 2.5-mile stretch from Minnehaha Falls—to Coldwater—to the confluence of rivers, was a traditional gathering place for upper Mississippi tribes. Eddie Benton Benais, Grand Chief of the Mdewiwin (Medicine) Society, Anishinabe spiritual elder from Lac Courte Oreilles, Wisconsin, gave court-ordered testimony (3/19/99) about the cultural significance of the Coldwater area:
My grandfather who died in 1942...many times he retold how we traveled, how he and his family, he as a small boy traveled by foot, by horse, by canoe to this great place to where there would be these great religious, spiritual events. And that they always camped between the falls and the sacred water place [the spring]... We know that the falls which came to be known as Minnehaha Falls, was a sacred place, a neutral place, a place for many nations to come... And that the spring from which the sacred water should be drawn was not very far...a spring that all nations used to draw the sacred water for the ceremony...How we take care of the water is how it will take care of us... More on the Initiative - click here
Grandmother of Rivers, The Mississippi March 26, 2010
From Allan W. Eckert’s Twilight of Empire, footnote 12:
Indian peoples from as far east as the Hudson Valley and as far west as the Rocky Mountains referred to the Mississippi River as “the Grandmother of Rivers,” but no evidence has been discovered to indicate that they ever called it “the Father of Rivers,” which appears to be an appellation originated by the whites, probably the British. More frequently Indian people referred to it as the Mississippi, meaning “Big River.”
Derivation of Mississippi is traced most specifically to the Ottawa tongue, in which it is Misses Sepe. Variations of this in other dialects are Metha Sepe (Shawnee), Meche Sepe (Kickapoo), Mecha Sapo (Sac), Mecha Sapua (Menominee) and Meze-Zebe (Chippewa).
In these variations, the first word means big or large, the second means river. Oddly enough, the Winnebagoes referred to it as Nekoonts Haktakah—again, the two words meaning Large and River. The Sioux, on the other hand, called it Wapta-Tonga, with the two words once more signifying Big and River.
From Paul Durand’s Where the Waters Gather and the Rivers Meet:
Misi Zibi [Ojibwe, a.k.a Chippewa, Anishinabeg] “River-Everywhere-Or-All-Over, the Mississippi becomes so below the junction of Leech Lake River, not Itasca, as so designated by the whites. This is the archaic designation, as in later times it was more commonly called KITCHI [great] ZIBI [river]. (p. 131)
“Rivers follow the general rule of taking the name of their immediate source lake. When reaching Lake Bemidji, Cass, and Winnibigoshish, this stream changed its name three more times and not until the outlet of Leech Lake is reached does it become the Mississippi.”—Jos. A. Gilfillan (p. 15)
Following this rule the source of the Mississippi, with its wealth of tourism, would be within Leech Lake Indian Reservation two counties east of Lake Itasca. (S.J.)... (continued - click here)
Coldwater History
Coldwater is a 10,000-year-old spring that flowed at a pre Highway 55 construction rate of 100,000-144,000 gallons a day.
In addition to being a living geological museum, Coldwater was a traditional gathering place for Native American tribes of the upper Mississippi that used spring water for specific ceremonies requiring sacred water in a sacred landscape.
The powerful Dakota god of waters and the underworld is said to dwell at Coldwater Spring.
Coldwater is also the birthplace of Minnesota, where the soldiers lived who built Fort Snelling and site of the pioneer settlement whose citizens founded St. Paul and Minneapolis. Coldwater furnished water to Fort Snelling for 100 years.
Minnehaha Falls is about a mile north of Coldwater Spring. Both are on the Mississippi River bluff that forms the only true river gorge on the entire 2,350-mile length of the Mississippi. The gorge runs 9 miles from the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers to the cataract now called the Falls of St. Anthony... (continued - click here >>)
Coldwater Journal is a record of personal observations and reflections from visits to the Coldwater campus.
Please feel free to submit your thoughts and reflections about Coldwater for posting here on the FRIENDS site via email.
: : :
January 2012
Clear Cut at Coldwater
Photo: Friends of Coldwater
New York Environmentalists Stop National Park Service from Clear Cut and Herbicide Policy: How Can We Get Coldwater National Park Folks to Listen?
Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, a New York City/Staten Island environmental group, stopped the National Park Service from the kind of massive clear-cut and herbicide application that is being done at Coldwater. The "wrong kind of trees" were eliminated at Coldwater including indigenous cottonwoods, box elders, and sumac bushes along with invasive, non-native and "hazardous" trees.
MillionTreesNYC Initiative at Crooke's Point has Environmentalists Crying Foul
(Published in Staten Island South Shore, 1/18/12)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.— For decades, Crooke's Point has been an ecosystem in easy harmony, serving as a jumping-off point for migratory birds and butterflies and a favorite destination for nature enthusiasts.
Every autumn, the 28-acre peninsula [Coldwater is 27-acres] jutting into the Atlantic Ocean from Gateway National Recreation Area comes alive with the calls and colors of thousands of winged creatures, among them tree swallows and monarch butterflies, who congregate in the foliage-rich habitat before moving on to New Jersey and points south.
But the very composition of that plant life has come under scrutiny by the National Park Service, which has stewardship of the land, and the city Parks Department, which has tens of thousands of trees available as part of its much-touted MillionTreesNYC.
VOCIFEROUS OBJECTIONS
Despite the full-throated objections of local environmentalists, the agencies plan to move forward this month with a plan to apply herbicide and bulldoze swaths of the peninsula to wipe out invasive plant species.
Although the Parks agencies have yet to detail exactly what will be planted in their stead, environmentalists have wondered if one of the goals of the project is to remake the land into a home for a miniforest of native trees, which would count toward the city's million.
"We have protested as strongly as we can, so far. We think it's not needed, and that this will have the potential to get pesticides into the water table," said Ellen Pratt of the Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, who, along with anglers and concerned scientists, have attended five, three-hour meetings with the agencies begging them to rethink the project.
At a board meeting next week of the Protectors, the nonprofit borough environmental group will discuss appealing to lawmakers to pressure the agencies to halt the project.
The intended trees may not survive in the sandy, porous soil - the loose, dry composition of which could also allow the herbicide to seep into the surrounding water, said Ms. Platt.
"This project would destroy a metropolitan-area resting and refueling stop important to wildlife," she said, adding that Boy Scouts could remove the invasive species in a far less destructive manner.
SOME CONCESSIONS
As a result of the community's concerns, the Park agencies have made some concessions, agreeing to phase in the program and avoid killing off the endangered native plants that dot the peninsula.
"Here at Gateway, we are trying to restore examples of native habitats to serve as examples of what existed here in New York prior to urbanization. That is part of our mission as a national park," said Raina Williams, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service. "The overgrowth of invasive exotic species limits the variety of wildlife that can use the area for food or shelter."
The project does not have a budget as such, but the National Park Service will pay labor costs for its own employees. Trees and plants will be donated by MillionTreesNYC, she said. Work on the "two-acre pilot restoration" will start his month and continue through October 2013, and will include three separate applications of herbicide. [Note: only two-acres of their 28-acre site is being stripped.]
Ms. Williams said the chemicals used will be safe for sandy soil and applied by hand to avoid being carried by the wind. She gave assurances that marine life and the migratory birds and butterflies that alight on the other side of the peninsula will not be affected.
"The problem is they don't have a budget for this, so our question has always been, once you do this, how are you going to keep the invasive from coming back," said Ed Johnson, the curator of science at Staten Island Museum, who has made dozens of trips to Crooke's Point to inventory the plants life and plot the endangered species, so the agencies can avoid killing them off.
"In truth, a habitat like this without the invasives would be better; you'd have greater biodiversity," he said. "But the ecosystem has been like that for 50 years. Unless you can plan it so you are sure of success, maybe you shouldn't do it."
From Alan Robbins-Fenger to Friends of Coldwater
Octobrer 26 2011 Coldwater Site to be Closed during Construction
Beginning November 1, 2011 the Coldwater Unit (former Bureau of Mines) will be closed to public access. The general contractor, USA Environmental Management, Inc., will begin preparations for demolition of the buildings and restoration of the site. The construction is expected to be completed by late August - early September 2012.
The public is invited to National Park Service ranger led tours of the site on the following Saturdays from 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.:
November 12, November 19, December 3, December 17, January 7, January 21, February 4, February 18, March 3, March 17 and March 31. Additional dates during the spring and summer of 2012 will be announced in March.
After a brief 10-15 minute overview presentation, the public will be escorted to the spring and reservoir area. The remainder of the hour will be unstructured with the Ranger available to answer individual questions and for the public to quietly visit the site during this time.
Open construction sites can be dangerous places for the general public. The National Park Service places the highest priority on assuring that sites are safe for visitors. Closing the site assures the maximum level of safety and security while allowing construction to occur in the most efficient manner, saving time and money.
Check the NPS website frequently for updates.
For more information: John Anfinson, Chief of Resource Management, 651-293-8432.
Links to Coldwater restoration plans
National Park Service drawings of Coldwater Land Restoration plans posted the week of August 29, (the plans are dated July 28). Concurring parties were not notified; Friends of Coldwater was alerted by an email from Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition. click here
Link to the State Historical Preservation Office and the Memorandum of Agreement on Bruce White’s website:
To: Michael Reynolds, Regional Director
Midwest National Park Service Headquarters
Omaha, Nebraska
From: Susu Jeffrey
for Friends of Coldwater
September 27, 2011
We don't know the names of the Native American peoples who lived around Coldwater Spring after the last glacier melt 10,000-years-ago. The Dakota people were there when soldiers camped at the Spring while building Fort Snelling (1820-3) above the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.
The Spring furnished water to the Fort 1820-1920 and still flows at a reduced rate of about 80,000 gallons per day. During the drought summer of 1976 when city water tasted putrid, Coldwater was an emergency drinking water supply for south Minneapolis.
Friends of Coldwater (FoC) was founded in 2001, on the shoulders of Park and River Alliance, Stop the Reroute—Save the Park, and Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition as the movement to save this historic land and waterscape changed with passing time. In January 2010 the National Park Service/Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (NPS/MNRRA) began managing the 27-acre Coldwater property.
Friends of Coldwater is one of the consulting parties to the NPS/MNRRA Memorandum of Agreement to transition the property from industrial research campus to open parkland. Since February 2011 we have been asking, repeatedly, to see the plans before plans are finalized.
It is the frustration of arbitrary tree removal, toxic chemical application and recent land damage that leads us to the extraordinary step of writing to the regional director of the NPS. continued
HOORAY!
(Kind of) By Susu Jeffrey
for Friends of Coldwater
April 7, 2011
The National Park Service is preparing to raze the old buildings at Coldwater, remove the roads and daylight the creek. Daylighting Coldwater Creek means getting rid of the pipe and allowing Spring water to flow directly out of the reservoir down the bluff to the Mississippi.
Here is Friends of Coldwater’s detailed response to National Park Service plans for the Coldwater campus. We begin with how we got to this point—“Background” and answer the question: What do the Dalai Lama and Osama bin Laden have to do with Coldwater?
Then follows “The Coldwater Landscape and 2011 Restoration Plans,” an analysis of saving as many trees as possible and replanting burr oaks. Next is a critique of the Diversion Ditch which would funnel more water out of the reservoir. We discuss extensive Recontouring the Land (dirt moving) plans and argue for stabilizing the landscape immediately with burr oak trees and prairie plants.
The vision most people have of Coldwater is the Reflecting Pond and Springhouse. The entire National Park Service plan is anchored by funding a replication of the 1880 limestone reservoir complex. Of course erosion makes this impossible but the challenge is to create “open parkland,” a beautiful urban wilderness restored to oak trees and prairie flowers.
Background
The 1880s were one decade in Coldwater Spring’s 10,000 years. The Coldwater area has great value to all Americans as a Native American site. With the discovery of a 9,000-year-old bison spear point by Minnesota state archeologist Robert Clouse at the Sibley House dig in Mendota in 1996, we learned people were in the area 9,000 years ago... READ:
The History, The Plan, Our Conclusion - click here
America’s First Green Museum
Contact Ken Salazar, Secretary
Department of the Interior
Subject: Coldwater Park Expansion, America’s First Green Museum
Dear Secretary Salazar:
I write to encourage you to expand Coldwater Park on the Mississippi, south of Minneapolis, to form one contiguous 80-acre urban wilderness.
We applaud National Park Service plans to return the land to oak savanna and urge you to dedicate the parkland as America’s first Green Museum, a place where the land is the museum.
Sincerely,
GREEN MUSEUM
A Land Vision for Coldwater Park
Friends of Coldwater envisions Coldwater Park as an 80-acre urban wilderness, from the top of the Mississippi gorge to the river—America’s first Green Museum—a place where the land is the legacy, the museum, the teacher and the future.
• Coldwater Spring is at least 10,000-years old. It is the last major natural spring in Hennepin County.
• Where Coldwater Creek and waterfall empty into the Mississippi River the sandstone bedrock is 451-million years old.
• At the top of the bluff where Coldwater Spring flows out of bedrock fractures, the limestone is 438-million years old. Everything after that time was scraped south by glaciers (which is why there are no native earthworms).
• Mni Owe Sni (Dakota: water-spring-cold) located above the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, was a traditional gathering place for Upper Mississippi Indian peoples including Dakota, Anishinabe, Ho Chunk, Iowa, Sauk and Fox (within historic memory). Particularly blessed by water and considered sacred was the 2.5-mile stretch from (what is now called) Minnehaha Falls through Coldwater to the b’dota, the meeting of waters (confluence).
• Coldwater became the Birthplace of Minnesota when army troops camped around the spring (1820-23) and mined limestone bluffs to build Fort Snelling. Pioneers built cabins at “Camp” Coldwater to service the fort with meat, trade goods, whiskey, translators, guides, wives, domestic workers and missionaries. Coldwater furnished water to the fort from 1820-1920.
• From the 1880s to 1950 “Coldwater Park” was labeled on area maps.
• The Bureau of Mines built a Cold War facility to research metallurgy and mining on 27-acres around Coldwater, 1950-95.
• In 1988 the US Congress established the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, under the National Park Service. MNRRA is a 72-mile long spaghetti-shaped parcel of critical habitat along the Mississippi River through the greater Twin Cities from Dayton to below Hastings. Coldwater could become the jewel of MNRRA.
• Coldwater still flows at about 80,000 gallons a day.
Coldwater and the Mississippi River Gorge by Susu Jeffrey and Alan Olson
April 2007
The Mississippi River gorge is the only true river gorge on the entire 2,350-mile length of the river. The gorge runs between the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, northward to the Falls of St. Anthony and is 1,273-feet deep according to a sign in Minnehaha Park. But it's invisible to us, filled with glacial debris and under water because dams keep the river level artificially high enough for barge traffic—9-feet deep in the shipping channel.
The old stories of being able to walk across the Mississippi meant that in low water periods, people could cross the rocky river course atop 1,273 feet of rocks deposited by the glacial melt about 10,000-years ago. The rocks that fill the gorge were brought south by glaciers that dropped their loads in the melt outwash. The glaciers ground up and pushed granite rock from the Canadian shield in (what is now) northern Minnesota southward, mixed with any other bedrock the ice mountain could scour.
A truck load of Mississippi River bottom pebbles, from dredging to keep the barge lane clear, was dumped in a friend's yard for their rock circle. The rocks are free, truck delivery is the only charge. In their circle are the tumbled remains of the earth history of this area: black granite, red stones rich in iron, white-ish limestone, milky quartz, a few pieces of sandstone, an occasional agate, and many composites. Each small stone is as individual as a person.
Rock wise, the river bottom doesn't look like the great, steep bluffs carved by the Mississippi. This is the "upper" Mississippi, the river is still on top of bedrock—considered a young river. Further south, the Mississippi meanders through layers of silt, an old river characteristic. From Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio empties into the Mississippi, down to New Orleans, the river meanders through a sediment-filled valley 40-70 miles wide that used to be an embayment of the Gulf of Mexico.
Coldwater Spring is on top the Mississippi bluff, half way between Minnehaha Falls and the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. The spring is estimated to be 10,000 years old, flowing at about 100,000 gallons a day. The Mississippi bluff below Coldwater is 451-million years old—only 451-million years old. (The earth is estimated to be 4 ½-billion years old.) Between 451- and 438-million years ago, in just 13-million years, the entire bluff we see today was formed. The rock sandwich of limestone, sandstone and shale was laid down under a series of great inland seas of various depths...
(continued - click here)
Coldwater Video by Dan Wittenburg
Before it was a historic site, Coldwater was a sacred site. : : : Friends of Coldwater A Minnesota Nonprofit Educational Corporation
